The longer you spend together, the more memories you have to share. Don't let the vacation and family pictures mold away in the closet until you're gone and your offspring pore through the boxes, surprised at the treasures they find that they never knew existed.

Make your memories part of your life by collecting everything that evokes special moments together in your exciting journey as a couple. Photographs may be the centerpiece but also include mementos such as ticket stubs, playbills, special menus, cruise schedules, subway maps, tour brochures, and match covers. Get in the habit early of saving every little scrap of information and background on things you do together.

Organize, juxtapose, and arrange everything on a wall-mounted collage or in a scrapbook. Write short narratives that pull the pieces together to jog your memory banks about special trips and unforgettable evenings. You may need to make several separate scrapbooks or collages for different trips, events, or experiences. Keep the scrapbooks handy as a ready reminder of happy memories that often dissipate when relegated to dusty slide shows or boxes of forgotten photographs.

For this particular task, leave out family outings - they can be arranged elsewhere for everyone to share. This effort is to create a place just for the two of you where you can occasionally wander nostalgically and renew the excitement of shared experiences.

Virginia Bola, PsyD

Dr. Virginia Bola is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, a vocational expert, a social commentator and a self-admitted diet fanatic. After 20 years of owning a vocational rehabilitation company, she is now Manager of Clinical Operations for a major MBHO.

She has authored numerous articles on the psychology of weight control, the emotional correlates of unemployment and job search, social issues, politics, and the graying of America.

Her latest book, completed in June, 2005,is Diet With An Attitude: A Weight Loss Workbook, an interactive manual providing the reader with personal guidance and encouragement in the battle to lose weight. It takes an irreverent approach to dieting while providing innovative and therapeutic exercises for self-exploration, confidence-building and emotional self-support.

Her earlier book, The Wolf At The Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, provides unemployed workers with therapeutic exercises, self-exploration, and confidence-building worksheets combined with specific, step-by-step techniques for finding work.